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Autopsy: Cause of death for Irvo Otieno was asphyxia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

By Sarah Rankin | Associated PressRICHMOND, Va. — Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man whose death last month at a Virginia mental hospital has sparked outrage and led to second-degree murder charges against 10 defendants, died of “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints,” a medical examiner’s office said Monday.Arkuie Williams, the administrative deputy in the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, confirmed the cause of death findings to The Associated Press after attorneys for Otieno’s family first shared them in a statement. The manner of death was homicide, Williams wrote in an email.Otieno, who struggled with mental illness, died March 6 after he was pinned to the floor while being admitted to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County.Video released earlier this month showed sheriff’s deputies and hospital employees restraining a handcuffed and shackled Otieno for about 20 minutes after he was forcibly led into a hospital room. Fo...

SF drag legend Heklina reportedly found dead in London

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

(KRON) -- Longtime San Francisco drag performer Heklina has reportedly died in London, according to a social media post from fellow SF drag mainstay, Peaches Christ (aka Joshua Grannell). Heklina and Grannell were apparently in London together starring in "Mommie Queerest," which is a described as a "Wild drag parody" of the 1981 film, "Mommie Dearest." These 2 Bay Area cities are the healthiest in America "This morning, in London, England I went to collect my dear friend Heklina, who is costarring with me in a Mommie Queerest show here, and found her dead," wrote Grannell, posting from the Peaches Christ Facebook page. "I do not know her cause of death yet. I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned.""Heklina is not just my best friend, but a beloved icon of our community," Grannell wrote. "I am a mess."Heklina, a mainstay in the local drag community, was a frequent guest on KRON4's "Live In the Bay," and appeared on the show in January to discuss her recent show, "But ...

Police association files claim against City of Oakland after data breach

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) -- After a data breach led to the release of personal information of city employees in early March, the Oakland Police Officers' Association has filed a claim against the City of Oakland on behalf of all its members, according to court documents obtained by KRON4. It's a girl! First white rhino born at Safari West in Santa Rosa The claim was filed on March 30, 52 days after the ransomware attack. The POA is asking for reimbursement of damages suffered by its members after the city's "failure to protect its employees' personal data by refusing to maintain adequate information security systems," the OPOA wrote in press release. The documents filed by the OPOA state that the city's failure to secure its information systems is well documented. An annual report presented to the City Council in March 2022 laid out "weaknesses" within the city's information security. Some of the challenges listed include outdated policies, lack of risk assessment, lack of testing ...

California, Nevada states with most superbug fungus infections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal public health officials have identified southern Nevada as the place in the U.S. with the highest number of cases of a potentially lethal fungus that is resistant to common antibiotics, and can be a major risk for hospital and nursing home patients.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked and found that in 2022, Nevada had 16%, or 384 of the country’s 2,377 clinical cases of the superbug called Candida auris — followed by California with 359 cases, Florida with 349 cases and New York with 326. Could this be why the Twitter logo was replaced with the doge emoji? The CDC findings were reported March 20, the same day that study in Annals of Internal Medicine said cases of the dangerous fungus had tripled in the U.S. over the last three years, and that 27 states and the District of Columbia had reported cases. The earliest infections in the U.S. were reported in 2013.A year ago, the state Department of Health and Human Services notified health ca...

Officials: Epic California snowpack among biggest on record

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — This year’s epic snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada could top records, state officials said Monday, and significant flooding is expected when it melts and flows down from the mountains.Just months after the state was dangerously deep in drought, its reservoirs are filling, with the snowpack yet to melt.The water content of the statewide snowpack as reported by a network of automated sensors on Monday was 237% of average to date, said Sean de Guzman, water supply forecasting unit manager for the California Department of Water Resources.That is greater than any previous April reading since the sensor network was deployed in the mid-1980s, de Guzman said. Manual measurements on “snow courses” date back to 1910 and only the years 1952, 1969 and 1983 showed a statewide result greater than 200% of average in April.The record 1952 measurement was also 237% of average, but there were fewer snow courses measured then and the addition of others over the year...

Dubai upholds extradition of financier accused of fraud

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A court in Dubai on Monday rejected the appeal of a British financier fighting extradition to Denmark, where he is accused of orchestrating a $1.7 billion tax fraud.Hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah is accused of masterminding a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2015 in which foreign businesses pretended to own shares in Danish companies and claimed tax refunds for which they were not eligible. He was arrested in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, last year.The Dubai media office said the Court of Cassation upheld a ruling late last year that granted Denmark’s request for extradition. The lower court had said documents implicated him in fraud and money laundering. It was not immediately clear when he would be extradited. In a separate ruling in September, Shah was ordered to pay $1.25 billion to Denmark’s tax authority as part of a civil case in Dubai. His lawyers are also appealing that ruling.Shah’s lawyers could not immediately be reac...

Stephen F. Austin’s Mark Kellogg named WVU women’s coach

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Stephen F. Austin women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg was named to the same position at West Virginia on Monday.Kellogg compiled a 195-55 record in eight seasons at Stephen F. Austin, leading the Ladyjacks to two conference tournament titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022. His teams won at least 23 games in each of the last seven seasons.Kellogg replaces Dawn Plitzuweit, who left West Virginia after one season to become coach at Minnesota.Prior to Stephen F. Austin, Kellogg spent 10 years combined coaching at three Division II schools: West Texas A&M, Northwest Missouri State and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.“Mark Kellogg is an established winner who has made a name for himself by building championship programs and preparing his student-athletes to be leaders on and off the court,” West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement. “He has had tremendous success at every stop along his coaching career jou...

Spieth returns to Augusta in search of another green jacket

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Jordan Spieth was caught in such a whirlwind after winning the Masters eight years ago, whether it was winging his way to New York for television appearances or throwing out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game, that he never bothered to find a tailor for his green jacket.Leave it to Augusta National, where every piece of the property is finely tailored, to take care of such details.“I just had it everywhere and I never got it fixed,” Spieth said Monday, “and I think they have done it since here, because the arms certainly fit a lot better. I left a little room just in case I put on a few pounds over the years.”That’s some forward thinking.Of course, a better solution would be to keep winning new ones.There was a time when that seemed inevitable. Spieth was just 21 back in 2015, when he became the first wire-to-wire Masters champion since Ray Floyd nearly four decades earlier, tying Tiger Woods’ then-record of 18 under along the way. He went on to ...

Valencia held by Rayo, stays near relegation zone in Spain

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Valencia couldn’t manage more than a 1-1 draw at home against Rayo Vallecano on Monday, remaining near the relegation zone in the Spanish league.The result moved Valencia to 17th place but it has the same points as 18th-placed Espanyol and second-to-last Almeria. It could have risen to 15th with a victory at Mestalla Stadium.“It doesn’t feel like it’s a lot,” Valencia captain José Luis Gayà said after the draw. “We played well enough to win, but it’s been like this in these last few rounds. We have been playing well but not winning.”Valencia will try to win its first away game in the league since October when it visits Almeria on Sunday in a key match in the fight against relegation.It was the seventh consecutive winless match for Rayo, which stayed in eighth place and within range of the European places.The visitor opened the scoring with a goal by Santiago Comesaña after nine minutes. Valencia equalized with a penalty kick converted by Justin Kluivert in ...

Court documents reveal moments leading up to Va. woman’s deadly stabbing at Ivy City Hotel in DC

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:36:59 GMT

Less than an hour after a Virginia woman checked into a D.C. motel Friday evening, a man on a bicycle approached her room, opened the door and then brutally stabbed her 30 times with a kitchen knife, according to court documents.George Sydnor, 43, of no fixed address, has been charged with first-degree murder while armed in the stabbing death of Christy Bautista, 31, of Harrisonburg, Virginia. A Facebook profile for Bautista indicates she is originally from Arlington, Virginia. Family members told NBC Washington Bautista was visiting D.C. to attend a concert over the weekend.More Local NewsMore DC NewsSydnor was ordered held without bond following an appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Monday. He has pleaded not guilty.There’s no indication Sydnor knew Bautista.Prosecutors said Bautista’s lifeless body was discovered by D.C. police inside Room 116 of the Ivy City Hotel on New York Avenue in Northeast D.C. after they were called to the hotel to check on a 911 call. A pas...